Pan-fried Duck & Butterbeans

A super easy recipe for a fancy, delicious dish. 

This is a recipe I found from Jamie Oliver, and is extremely healthy and tasty. You only need a few ingredients and it doesn't take very long at all. It's a great meal to have in spring or winter as all ingredients should be available locally-sourced. You could actually make this any time of year and be within season, but I find it's better to bring this dish out as a treat in the bleaker months when the variety of ingredients are a bit more scarce, so I would say you'd appreciate this meal more between say November and April. 

All you need is...

• Duck breast (free-range or higher welfare)
• 1/3rd tin of butterbeans
• 50g spinach (or more)
• 2 bacon medallions (organic, pasture-raised or higher welfare) or better yet, I dice up some of my own home-smoked, Honey & Clementine Gammon which I smoke outdoors every Boxing Day and freeze what is leftover to use for meals like this!
• garlic
• rosemary
• balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper

(ingredients per person)

1. Lightly score the skin of the duck breast width ways about 1 or 2cm apart, this will allow the juices to come out more to make a thicker and tastier sauce. Season the skin side with a little salt and black pepper. 
2. Place the duck breast skin-side down on a cold pan and turn the hob to medium-high heat. Cook this side for 8-minutes without touching it, meanwhile dice the bacon medallions. Then, turn the duck breast over and fry for a further 4-minutes skin-side up. Remove the duck breast and put onto a separate plate to rest (leave the fat in the pan)
3. Add the bacon (or smoked gammon), rosemary and chopped garlic (or granules if you don't have fresh garlic) to the pan with the duck fat and cook.
4. Once the bacon/gammon is cooked, add a dash of vinegar to help scrape up anything that has stuck to the pan, add the butterbeans with their juices, allow to simmer for a while, and then add the spinach. 
5. I like to use a lot of spinach as it has so much goodness, so once some has partially wilted, add a little more and cook until wilted. It always appears that you've got way too much spinach -- until you cook it and realise you should have made more, so make sure you give yourself plenty. Serve up and enjoy!